Peggy Burchard-Ballard

Peggy Burchard-Ballard’s collages come from years of acquiring old books, magazines, and abandoned family photos found at flea markets and antique stores. Additional elements come from personal photographs and copyright free images. She uses original images, reproductions, gel transfers, a good collection of paint, glue, and several pairs of sharp scissor as everything is cut by hand. The collages are part process and part play. What does not work in one piece usually finds a home in another.

Ballard earned her BFA in printmaking from the University of North Texas where her focus was in intaglio printmaking. She received her MA in Art Therapy Counseling from the University of Southern Illinois - Edwardsville. She worked as an art therapist until 2015 when she left a career in counseling. Ballard’s diverse background in art mediums is reflective in her collages and paintings.

Ballard has won awards for her prints and collages in Texas, Florida, and in the Missouri –Illinois region, including an honorable mention at the 2015 Mary S. Oakley and Lee Lindsay Artists Showcase in Quincy. She previously taught printmaking through Arts = Education and at the Quincy Art Center. She is a past adjunct professor at John Wood Community College and has been an adjunct art history professor at Quincy University since 2008.

Ballard is a transplanted Mid-Westerner having arrived from Texas to Kansas City, Missouri in the early 1990’s. In 1999 she moved to Quincy, Illinois where she currently resides with her husband, Kevin, in a big old empty nest house with three old dogs. Her studio occupies the former third floor ballroom.